Session 7
' ' WHAT’S SO CIVIL ABOUT WAR ANYWAY? ' ' _________________________________ ' ' A Play in Two Acts ' ' By ' ' The Young Adventurers ' ' Cast of Characters ' ' Kaia BRIGHTWOOD: A human ranger trying to save her brother ' ' Nespip GLITTERLEAF: A gnomish paladin just looking for a sword ' ' Ralkor: A hobgoblin wizard who does the dirty work ' ' Sebastian Joab: An aasimar cleric of Helm looking for meaning ' ' Prince Derendil: Just a dude along for the ride ' ' Scene ' ' The city of Gracklstugh and the tunnels below. ' ' Time ' ' 17 Kythorn in the year DR 1492. ' ' ACT I Scene 1 ' ' SETTING: The underground lair of a MIND FLAYER. The bodies of the mind flayer and his minions lay strewn about in a grotesque display. The murderers--our cast of characters--stand amidst the destruction looting the bodies of the dead. ' ' SEBASTIAN I say, this door must lead somewhere important, they’ve locked it. ' ' RALKOR Perhaps one of these people against whom I launched an unprovoked attack has the key? (RALKOR checks the corpses, finding a key on a leather thong around one of their necks.) Aha! And look, it works! (The door opens with a click.) ' ' SEBASTIAN Hmm, but all that lies behind the door is a ladder and a strange arcane circle. ' ' RALKOR A teleportation circle, unless I miss my guess. I’ll make a copy of it for later, perhaps someone should see where the ladder goes? ' ' KAIA I’ll go with you Sebastian. Derendil and Nespip can protect Ralkor should the need arise. (SEBASTIAN and KAIA go up the ladder while RALKOR begins copying the circle. A CRANIUM RAT watches from outside the room.) ' ' NESPIP What’s this? One of those brain rats! Let’s see where it goes. (The rat flees as NESPIP approaches, going out a tunnel to the east. SEBASTIAN and KAIA return from above.) ' ' SEBASTIAN The ladder leads to a sewer pipe that empties into the Darklake. ' ' NESPIP I saw a brain rat spying on us before fleeing out the tunnel, perhaps we should follow it? Also, I’m curious about these mushrooms we found. (NESPIP eats a mushroom and shrinks to half his size.) Neat! RALKOR Yes, I’m done here, let’s see where this rat goes. ' ' (END SCENE) ' ' ACT I Scene 2 ' ' SETTING: Narrow tunnels east of the mind flayer lair. ' ' KAIA What’s this now? I see a grey dwarf ahead, along with a brain rat and one of those four-legged brains, too. Stand aside, dwarf! The Young Adventurers go where they please! ' ' DWARF You interlopers have done enough damage! Leave and there can still be peace between us, stay and we will be forced to fight you with all our might! ' ' KAIA Very well then, blood shed it is! (The Young Adventurers mercilessly massacre the dwarf and his weird companions.) Let us continue exploring. ' ' NESPIP If we turn here, then here, and once more to the left, where do we end up? Oh, a room full of enemies. (Four GREY DWARVES, a swarm of CRANIUM RATS, a MINDWITNESS, and two INTELLECT DEVOURERS are in what looks like a barracks.) Whelp, I hope the Young Adventurers can kill their way out of this mess! ' ' DWARF covered in CRANIUM RATS You had your chance to turn back! You invaded our home and killed our master, prepare for justice! (A fight ensues. Nespip eats a different mushroom and grows back to normal size. Against all odds the Young Adventurers manage to defeat their foes.) ' ' SEBASTIAN By the right hand of Helm, that was a fierce battle! I thought we were done for when the rats mind controlled Kaia! Quick thinking recognizing the spell, Ralkor. (Ralkor is busy looting corpses.) ' ' RALKOR You’d all be lost without me. These guys have nothing, let’s push on. (The group continues to explore. It seems they have killed all the Empty-Scabbard Killers. They find a room with a large mesa.) ' ' NESPIP I recognize this place! This is where I, um, saw some dwarves and derro fighting. Let’s go to the top and check it out. ' ' KAIA All that’s up here are a couple dead grey dwarves. (Nespip laughs nervously) I hear a strange whispering, but I can’t quite make it out. (None of the rest of the party can make out the sounds clearly either because they suck at rolling dice.) Whatever, I’m bored, let’s go somewhere else. ' ' SEBASTIAN Hmmm, it seems we’ve now wandered back to the intersection with all the mushrooms, but that doesn’t match the map I’m drawing at all. Let me just see if I can make sense of this. (He cannot because his map is an affront to cartography.) ' ' RALKOR No matter, if we double back there are places we haven’t explored yet. See, down this corridor and around this corner, and look a passageway we haven’t been down. ' ' NESPIP And look! A smaller tunnel off to the side, this has to lead somewhere good! (The Young Adventurers follow the tunnel to a barracks full of derro.) Oh no! ' ' ZUBRISKA, a derro What the? Who are you people? You know what, nevermind, we’ll just kill you for intruding. (A fight ensues. Zubriska and two of the other derro are surprisingly competent, but the party kills them all, leaving only Zubriska alive for questioning.) ' ' KAIA Alright Derro scum, talk! Where are the Grey Ghosts? What did you steal from the Keepers of the Flame? What all is going on down here? ' ' ZUBRISKA You fools, I’m a member of the Council of Savants, you can’t kill me! If you do Narrak and the Grey Ghosts will destroy you! I will tell you what we took from the Keepers of the Flame though, that’s their secret not ours. We stole a red dragon egg, they planned to kill Themberchaud the Wyrmsmith and replace him with a younger and more biddable dragon. Pliinka has the egg now and we will make it a gift to the Prince! ' ' SEBASTIAN The Prince of Demons you mean! Demogorgon’s influence extends here too? Well, it seems that’s all we will get out of this derro, what shall we do with him? (The party argues for a bit before Ralkor rolls his eyes and stabs Zubriska to death with his rapier.) ' ' RALKOR Seriously, what would you do without me? ' ' NESPIP I would be okay with murdering fewer people, if I’m being honest. ' ' SEBASTIAN Perhaps we should go back the inn and recuperate a bit? That derro made it sound like there were a lot of Grey Ghosts down here. ' ' ALL TOGETHER Yes, let us do that. (They head back through the sewer pipe in the mind flayer lair.) ' ' SEBASTIAN We should go warn Themberchaud that the Keepers plan to kill him, he seemed like a pretty good guy for an evil dragon. ' ' KAIA Perhaps would should talk to Captain Blackskull first? She’s closer and we’ve basically been working for her. (The party agrees on this course of action) (END SCENE) ' ' ACT II Scene 1 ' ' SETTING: An interview room in the Overlake Hold. The party has just finished telling Captain Blackskull everything that happened, including that the Deepking has ordered various high-placed grey dwarf citizens--including her--assassinated. ' ' CAPTAIN BLACKSKULL A mind flayer nest? Dragon Egg? ASSASSINATION LIST? This is too much. ' ' KAIA Well, it is what it is. I think if you look carefully you’ll see none of it is our fault. ' ' CAPTAIN BLACKSKULL This will mean civil war. The king’s negligence has led to mind flayers in our city and his madness has turned him against his own nobility. They will not stand for it. We must marshall our forces--quickly! Young Adventurers, you’ve been of assistance to me thus far, will you help me in this? ' ' KAIA I mean, we don’t really want to fight in a grey dwarf civil war. ' ' CAPTAIN BLACKSKULL Return to the Whorlstone Tunnels and recover this dragon egg. We can use it to make an alliance with the Keepers of the Flame. Do this and you will be rewarded and can go on your way. ' ' KAIA But they’ll kill Themberchaud! And Sebastian really seems to care for some reason. ' ' CAPTAIN BLACKSKULL Well I don’t care. I will give you Rumblefoot’s goggles and 500g if you do this for me. ' ' SEBASTIAN You know, Themberchaud’s a big dragon, I’m sure he can take care of himself. ' ' KAIA Alright we’ll do it. ' ' (END SCENE) ' ' ACT II Scene 2 ' ' SETTING: The Ghohlbrorn Lair inn. The Young Adventurers sit around a table in the common room with Derendil, Eldeth, Jimjar, Stool and Fargus Rumblefoot. ' ' This scene is just them staring at each other silently for a while because they are conversing silently using Stool’s spores. The people who weren’t in the tunnels are filled in on what happened, presumably. ' ' The group retires for the night. (END SCENE)''